I will never buy a mass produced car again!
Discussion
Hopefully someone out there will be able to offer me some advice. My wife was invoved in an accident on the M3 in september, and we had the car repaired at the local Vauxhall dealer (its an Astra SRI). This amounted to over 3k which the insurance paid. Last week however the car recently began to sound like a diesel and it turned out it had ran out of oil and the cam chain (metal) was damanged and we would need a new one. They have now replaced this, and have said that there is still a noise after replacing it and have asked if they have permission to take the engine out and locate the noise again, although they still expect me to pay the £500 for the new cam chain, which it probably didn't need.
Has anyone ever had work done at a garage which didn't fix the problem and paid for it, or should I tell them to get stuffed? I am still trying to agrue the fact with them "how come the car had no oil in it a few weeks after a major amount of work was done" (i.e. new radiator, aircon etc) to which they reply they only did minor repairs (3K!!) and as the engine wasn't damaged they didn't look at it, to which I reply, if you didn't check it, how do you know.
frustrated!!!!
Has anyone ever had work done at a garage which didn't fix the problem and paid for it, or should I tell them to get stuffed? I am still trying to agrue the fact with them "how come the car had no oil in it a few weeks after a major amount of work was done" (i.e. new radiator, aircon etc) to which they reply they only did minor repairs (3K!!) and as the engine wasn't damaged they didn't look at it, to which I reply, if you didn't check it, how do you know.
frustrated!!!!
Sorry I cant help, but I had the same at a Vuaxhall dealership. Major front end damage, bodywork all repaired but they didn't check the engine. I had water-pump faiilure, drive belt failure, diesel pump failure, all within 3-4 weeks of getting it back from them, but of course it "wasn't their fault".
Insurance companies are as much to blame - fix what looks broken for as little as possible, don't do any further inspection/cautionary replacements for collateral damage.
Insurance companies are as much to blame - fix what looks broken for as little as possible, don't do any further inspection/cautionary replacements for collateral damage.
That's not necessarily a fault of "mass production", or even applicable to a number of major car manufacturers. Vauxhall are notorious for poor customer service.
[Not wanting to nag, but] you really should check your oil every time you get it back from a garage - they usually get the YTS-monkeys to do that work, and hence the level can be anywhere - I once checked the oil level before driving off in the car, walked straight back into the Honda dealership, and asked them to drain that excess litre (!!!) out of the engine. At 5.45pm they were NOT impressed.
[Not wanting to nag, but] you really should check your oil every time you get it back from a garage - they usually get the YTS-monkeys to do that work, and hence the level can be anywhere - I once checked the oil level before driving off in the car, walked straight back into the Honda dealership, and asked them to drain that excess litre (!!!) out of the engine. At 5.45pm they were NOT impressed.
Unfortunately its the wife's car so I was unable to check the car when we got it back (the joy of commuting and never getting to drive during the week). I know checking the oil should be done regularly and do it once a week on my car. I'm really just pi$$ed that they can get away with doing the minimum level, then fix the wrong part and then try and charge me for more work!
my experience...
took the wife's calibra in for a timing belt change and to look at some noise up front, they informed me that the rollers and water pump were in a bad way so i paid them about £600 for all the work and the wanted another £300 to replace some rubber spacer on the crank pulley that if failed would throw the timing belt (either lying or very crap piece of engineering), anyways
sell the car 18 months on, the guy took it to his friends garage and said that the rollers were screwed, and needed a new timing belt. there was 10000 or so miles done in 18 months. i talked to the guy, looked at the parts and vauxhall had only replaced the water pump and charged me for doing the belt and rollers. The belt had pieces missing from it, which was the reason i took it in to begin with.
took the wife's calibra in for a timing belt change and to look at some noise up front, they informed me that the rollers and water pump were in a bad way so i paid them about £600 for all the work and the wanted another £300 to replace some rubber spacer on the crank pulley that if failed would throw the timing belt (either lying or very crap piece of engineering), anyways
sell the car 18 months on, the guy took it to his friends garage and said that the rollers were screwed, and needed a new timing belt. there was 10000 or so miles done in 18 months. i talked to the guy, looked at the parts and vauxhall had only replaced the water pump and charged me for doing the belt and rollers. The belt had pieces missing from it, which was the reason i took it in to begin with.
Take it up to Vauxhall if it was at an authorised Vauxhall dealer -- case in point was my wife (when she was a free and single babe, in a diesel fiesta!) drove into a puddle and stalled - tried to start it, sucked up water -- major engine bugger up.
Somehow got it repaired (don't think it was a complete new engine) under insurance at a Ford Garage -- and 3/4 weeks later timing chain (or whatever the diesel equivilent is) went. Took it to garage who said 'wasn't of thier doing', raised it to Ford who pushed it back down to the dealer that it was.
Maybe times have changed (this was 7 odd years ago) but probably worth the try.
Somehow got it repaired (don't think it was a complete new engine) under insurance at a Ford Garage -- and 3/4 weeks later timing chain (or whatever the diesel equivilent is) went. Took it to garage who said 'wasn't of thier doing', raised it to Ford who pushed it back down to the dealer that it was.
Maybe times have changed (this was 7 odd years ago) but probably worth the try.
My wife ran over a raised drain cover, knocked the sump plug out & lost all the oil, luckily, she stopped within 20 yards of it happening, oil all over the road etc.
Car was collected by the dealer, they had it for 3 weeks, handed it back repaired and off we drove. Within 200 yards the oil light came on, car was taken straight back.
2 weeks later, we had heared nothing, rang the dealer, spoke to the service manager, who very casually said "oh yea mate, you need a new engine!"
I was enraged, went straight down to the garage where I found out that after returning the car 2 weeks earlier with the oil light on, the service manager had driven our car home that night (approx 50 miles round trip), presumably with the oil light still on. No wonder it now had engine problems!
Anyway, massive arguement with the dealer principal in the middle of the showroom, shouting the lot. He eventually said we had been badly treated and agreed to pay for the new engine.
To make it worse still, on the way out, the service manager came up to me and said "dunno wot you're worried 'bout mate, would have been paid by the insurance anyway!" Boy, did he get a piece in the ear, this attitude is exactly why our bloody insurance is so high.
....And breathe.............
Car was collected by the dealer, they had it for 3 weeks, handed it back repaired and off we drove. Within 200 yards the oil light came on, car was taken straight back.
2 weeks later, we had heared nothing, rang the dealer, spoke to the service manager, who very casually said "oh yea mate, you need a new engine!"
I was enraged, went straight down to the garage where I found out that after returning the car 2 weeks earlier with the oil light on, the service manager had driven our car home that night (approx 50 miles round trip), presumably with the oil light still on. No wonder it now had engine problems!
Anyway, massive arguement with the dealer principal in the middle of the showroom, shouting the lot. He eventually said we had been badly treated and agreed to pay for the new engine.
To make it worse still, on the way out, the service manager came up to me and said "dunno wot you're worried 'bout mate, would have been paid by the insurance anyway!" Boy, did he get a piece in the ear, this attitude is exactly why our bloody insurance is so high.
....And breathe.............
This may or may not have been covered in earlier posts (i admit i only scanned through them 
)
I presume your sri is a 2.2,
if so, cam chain failure is a known concern on some of the earlier engines and has been rectifed with a TSB released by vxll.
I would suggest you look into this as it's probably not related to the crash damage.
might be worth looking around on here as it's been covered a few times, there are a few knowledgeable people on there too.
) I presume your sri is a 2.2,
if so, cam chain failure is a known concern on some of the earlier engines and has been rectifed with a TSB released by vxll.
I would suggest you look into this as it's probably not related to the crash damage.
might be worth looking around on here as it's been covered a few times, there are a few knowledgeable people on there too.
Now I am really mad, my wife got phoned up by the Vauxhall garage saying that the timing chain had not completely fixed the issue and it needs a new engine, £3400!!!! + they want to charge us for the timing chain, even though its going to need a new engine. Went down there as soon as I could get home tonight to have a go, only 2 useless idiots there saying that everyone had gone and they couldn't do anything. I went outside and started the car, yes there is a slight noise but the engine starts fine and revs fine. Drove it up a down for about half a mile any eveything seems fine. How can and the car need a new engine!? , i'm not a mechanic, but its only making a slight noise and the engine pulls fine.
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